


White Christmas

by Whreflections



Series: Oklahoma verse [7]
Category: Kane (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Cookies, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:52:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whreflections/pseuds/Whreflections
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve has a talk with momma Kane while making some Christmas cookies, and it gives him a chance to think about a few things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> 92\. Christmas

“Get your hands away from those cookies, Steven Paul Carlson.”   
  
Steve jerked his hands back and shoved them in his pockets, grinning sheepishly. “Yes ma’m.”   
  
Diane Kane smiled as she pulled the pot holders off her hands after sliding the next batch of cookies into the oven. “One of the  _old_  house rules…nobody gets to steal cookies from the kitchen unless they’re helping with the cookin’.”   
  
 _That_  he could do, and he could tell by the way she shook her head at him that she knew it. “Can you get down the icing for me, honey? It’s up in that cabinet over the sink.”   
  
He shrugged his jacket off and draped it over one of the kitchen chairs first, going over to wash his hands in the sink before reaching up to pull down the tin of icing tubes from the cabinet. He sat it down by the racks of cooling cookies, watching her slide the first few off onto a platter.   
  
“I have to make a little bit of everything, you know, because the icing’s always been Jenny’s favorite but Christian likes the sprinkles. And you…” She held out the spatula with a plain, warm homemade sugar cookie on the end and he took it eagerly. “You like them just like this.”   
  
“Absolutely.”  _God_  nobody baked like her. Even his own mom, and considering what a wonderful cook she was  _that_  was saying something. Her sugar cookies especially put everyone else to shame. When she turned around to start on the next batch of dough he stole another one of the tray.   
  
“Some of those need to actually make it onto the platter for everyone else, you know.”   
  
Yeah, he did. There was Christian and Jenny and her son Daniel and Brandon and Christian’s dad and in general a whole houseful of people willing to pretty much kill over these. But if there were just a couple missing…well, what they never knew couldn’t hurt them. He picked up the spatula after the second cookie and started sliding shapes over onto the tray, careful not to break the antlers on the reindeer. They were Daniel’s favorites.   
  
One thing he’d learned after he’d started coming to the Kane house was that Christian got his voice from his momma. She sang beautifully and often, in church on Sundays and at home while she worked, and Steve had always imagined her teaching young Christian, singing Johnny Cash with him while she folded the laundry. She was humming now, something soft and familiar though he couldn't quite place it.   
  
“Stevie, can you hand me some flour, honey? This rollin’ pin’s startin’ to stick.”   
  
The canister was by the stove, and he swiped the plastic scoop through until it was half full, bringing it over to spill a little onto the wax paper she was using to roll out the dough. “Thank you, sweetie. You know…” She coated the flour onto her hands and spread it down the wooden rolling pin, keeping her eyes on her work as she talked. “You and Christian seem so much better lately.”   
  
‘Better’ was really the understatement of the year. Four years before, they’d nearly broken up, and they hadn’t even been here together at Christmas. He’d come to see her a couple months later of course, because she’d told him years ago that at this point he was as much as her son as Christian was, and she’d have never forgiven him if he’d stayed away too long without a visit. Of course, that particular visit had turned into him showing up half drunk, and at first she’d been torn between tearing him a new one for driving like that and comforting him. She’d settled for a mix of the two, and when he sobered up a little he’d ended up crying and telling her he was pretty sure he and Chris weren’t gonna make it. She’d let him talk, and in the end only added that if they were both falling apart like this over the thought of breaking up, that that couldn’t possibly be the right thing to do. Another month or so later, they’d figured that out on their own.   
  
The next year had been alright, world’s better than the one before but not perfect, and the year after that Chris had moved to Nashville in September. He’d come out to join him in November, and that whole next year he’d spent putting a hell of a lot of work into making Chris see he was in this for the long haul.   
  
It had worked. This past year, they’d  _finally_  gone public with their relationship and surprisingly(or not so surprisingly, depending on which of them was describing it), the world hadn’t ended. Chris was still filming Leverage and making music and they didn’t even bother separating anymore. They split their time still, but they did it  _together_ , spending filming season in Portland before moving on to L.A. or Nashville, depending. It seemed like it was working, and a few weeks ago Chris had even started talking to him about maybe trying to get a deal recording as Kane again.   
  
So yeah, all in all, they were ‘better’. They were so far past better it was unbelievable, and for the first few months Steve had been afraid to even  _think_  about that fact in case he jinxed it.   
  
He leaned over on the counter, nodding as he watched. “Yeah. Yeah, momma, we’re great.”   
  
“You wanna know a secret?” She cut her eyes over at him, smiling as she reached up to tuck a strand of graying hair back behind her ear. “I was never really worried. Even when you two were terrified, I just kept tellin’ myself, ‘God doesn’t make mistakes.’ “ Out of the many things to love about this woman, that was one of them. Her faith in God was unwavering, and their relationship had never really phased her. She’d told him once that that was because she’d known Christian had been interested in at least one other guy, when he was younger, and she’d expected the possibility at least a little. Christian’s daddy, on the other hand, had been surprised, but he was a good man. He’d never been anything but supportive. “And that was how I knew, because I’ve watched that boy his whole life, and I’ve  _never_  seen him as happy as he is when he’s with you. So I knew this couldn’t be somethin’ either of you were gonna lose. It just wouldn’t be right.”   
  
Simple logic, but he agreed with her wholeheartedly. He couldn’t imagine life without Chris, now. “We’re lookin’ at buildin’ a house here in Norman.” They hadn’t told her that yet, but they hadn’t decided  _not_  to tell her either, and he was pretty sure Christian wouldn’t mind. Relatively sure, at least. In any case, her smile was worth it. “Not for right now, really, just…just to have a place here.” Chris had said it could be somewhere to retire, somewhere they could come when they needed a break. Both reasons sounded pretty good to him. He’d come to like Oklahoma, and see them spending at least part of the year, easy.   
  
“Like I said, you boys are doin’ so much better. I can see it, you know. You’re both settlin’ in, and that’s good. The middle years of a relationship are the best ones, if you ask me. The first ones are just so hard so much of the time, so much time spent findin’ how you  _really_  fit together.”   
  
“What about the last?”   
  
Her eyes sparkled, and she smacked his shoulder, leaving flour on his shirt. “I’ll have to tell you when I get there, won’t I?” She was quiet a minute, finishing rolling out the dough and dusting her cookie cutters with flour. “Come over here and help me, Stevie. Do the stars and the bells for me and I’ll do these.” They were old fashioned metal cookie cutters, stars and bells and reindeer and Santa’s and sleighs. He and Christian had tried to do this themselves one year, but they’d rolled the dough too thin and ended up with lots of cookies even the dog hadn’t really wanted to eat. Baking wasn’t really their strong suit.   
  
“Daniel just adores Christian, you know.”   
  
Yeah, he did. The kid was 6 years old and growing into a man without a father, and Christian and Brandon were two of the best influences in his life. Christian played with him and talked to him and laughed with him every chance he got, and Daniel seemed pretty sure Christian had hung the moon.   
  
“Yeah, I know. Chris really loves him; he’s a good kid.”   
  
“Mmhm, he is. And Chris is so good with him.”   
  
He could see her smiling out of the corner of his eye and he slowed, taking his time pressing the star down into the dough. “Somehow I get the feeling this is leading somewhere.”   
  
Her smile widened. “It’s one of the universal laws of nature that a woman can never have too many grandbabies. All I’m sayin’ is that you two seem to be settlin’ down…it’s something to think about.” She leaned over to reach for a little more flour from the scoop, kissing his cheek as she did. “You’d be wonderful parents, Steve. Just think about it.”   
  
The thing is, he  _has_  thought about it, and it’s crossed his mine more and more these past couple of months, because she’s right, if they were waiting for stable, things are pretty damn stable right now. They both love kids and they’ve both always said a family was something they wanted someday and…well, it’s definitely something to  _seriously_  think about.   
  
His mind’s caught up in it for the next 15 minutes or so, and while he’s planned on thinking about it a lot more, you know, for the next few months or so, it’s then that Christian comes into the kitchen. He’s chasing Daniel, and they’re both wet from the snow, and he catches him up in his arms and half turns him upside down until he’s giggling uncontrollably and momma comes over and swats Chris on the back of the head. Chris puts him down then, ruffling his hair and kissing his forehead before holding him back up to let him pick out a cookie off the island.   
  
Chris is smiling, the kind of smile that makes his eyes sparkle and crinkle at the corners, and even though he’s got his hand out gettin’ ready to grab a cookie for himself Steve reaches out and pulls Chris back against his chest, kissing him warm and deep.   
  
Chris is still smiling when he stops, a little more breathless now, and reaches back to run his fingers through Steve’s hair, his head resting back on his shoulder. “Hey, darlin’. You been helpin’ momma cook?”   
  
“Yeah, a little bit.” He nuzzles against him, pressing his palm against Chris’ cheek to warm his skin. “You’re freezing.”   
  
“So? There’s  _snow_.” And yeah, he’s got a point. They  _never_  see snow in L.A., and hardly ever in Nashville and…yeah. Playing in it now is worth a little bit of cold. “Come sleddin’ with me and Daniel.”   
  
Right then, he knows he doesn’t need to think about it any more.   
  
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’   
  
It’s 2 A.M. the night of the 24th, and they just came back upstairs from helping lay out Daniel’s presents. Chris has just gotten back under the blankets when Steve rolls over and drapes on arm over him, resting his chin against Chris’ chest.   
  
He had a lot of ways he was thinking about bringing this up, but the ideas been buzzing around in his head so hard and with so much certainty, that he just comes right out with it.   
  
“So…do you wanna have a baby?”   
  
The grin on Chris’ face is all the answer he needs, but when he pulls Steve up to kiss him breathless, he  _knows_  he said the right thing. 


End file.
